J Class 1979 St Pete

J-777 IMAGE A brand new Staudacher owned by Bobby Howard but driven by Marty Niles in St-Pete in 1979. This is the first photo from a sequence of 13 photos taken by Phil Kunz. Watch a video photo slideshow to see the sequence pf photos taken in order. You’ll note …

Y-54 Dragon Fly

In the mid 1970s, Steve Ball of San Diego, California designed and built this unique 21′ boat and powered it with a Fiat engine to compete in the 850-cc hydro class. They went on to set a World Straightaway Speed Record in 1975 averaging 101.47 mph through the trap. More …

Fiberglass Hydros

Four different hydroplane builders pulled a few fiberglass inboard hydros out of their molds back in the day. Click to see/read the story. Perhaps this could have been a neat way to start a stock or modified class that would have been very competitive if you had a field of …

Modified hulls

APBA rules did not allow any apparatus (like an extended cowling) that could be simply bolted on the boat to meet the legal class minimum boat lengths (LOA) required. A boat or two tried that and it was soon outlawed so the wood hulls were cut and modified so they …